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ANgel.  You must be getting nicer weather than us. Your construction work getting done.  Rain and wind seems to have slowed ours down for weeks.

You do live in a busy area. No construction never goes on around me. I have one foot in the county and one in the City but most still empty land. Was all farmland and still can't be putting building on it.  Thank goodness.

Patricia, I had the thought of why didn't they put in underground wiring while they were working in the area.  Then I thought of the different types of soil and wondered if your soil would take to underground wiring - freezing and moisture - but I think here they put the lines in conduit so the soil doesn't come in contact with the lines.  The advantage is "no poles".

Mary Ann

Jeanne, I live next to one of the rivers. On one side is the edge of the older, business offices areas and across the river is the beginning of the western industrial area. There is one on the north side that is just a bit larger than the one by me but still railroad lines and industry on the other close riverside.

We are still uncommonly cold with mid-sixties highs and thirty to thirty-two lows.

MaryAnn, that is why they are digging up the streets so there will be both underground and above ground wires, pipes, etc.

Patricia, a great group of photos.  Looked like they were all hard at work and not standing around.  Liked the Mural on the one wall.

Darling shot of Fe, Sandy.  My youngest great is just 7 months.  They change so fast, don't they?

Interesting photos, Patricia..... impressive work they are doing.  Wichita has all the main streets in town torn up & makes everyone furious because they take forever to finish any job.  My daughter & I drove from my house to the far west, had lunch & went shopping on the far east side after.  Spent a lot of time "dis-cussing" those streets & inconvenience of detours.

Mary Ann, my brother was in Alaska to check on ecology after building the pipeline.... and such problems with permafrost I was expecting that would be iffy to put lines underground.  Glad you asked.

Jack WV...
...as always, lovely photo of your Mimi looking comfortable with her "now" surroundings of a backdrop of flowers...

Sandy...
...Happy 1st Birthday to Fe, or is that belated birthday? but doesn't time fly..

AngelFace...
...a lot of work going on, hmm, not sure of working in a building block without windows, I would sure be missing daylight and air...I am not a lover of murals on outside of buildings but, someone has got some talent...
...It was only yesterday I was watching ( tv programme ) Chris Tarrant: Extreme Railway Journeys - 'Ice Train to Nowhere' through Alaska...his last part of journey he stated was Fairbanks in the middle of nowhere, his words...have to admit the scenery was stunning although some parts of his train journeys were on the dangerous side, and some of his stopovers you could tell he was nervous in " bear country "...At least I got a chance to visit your hometown....
You can find footage via youtube of the programme...

Jack, nice photo of Mimi.  She is a beautiful golden.  I like those dark purple flowers.

Angel, I know you will be glad when they finish the work in your area.  But it is good to see the city improving itself and shows you must have a thriving city.

Fe is so cute.  My youngest great grand will be a year old the 20th.  My, how the time flies by.

Thanks everyone for the comments!

Fairbanks is out in the middle of nowhere. We are a small city of a little over 100,000 set amid arboreal forests and glacial rivers and smaller towns and villages. We have more hot springs, lakes, rivers, and streams in the Interior than any other state has in its entirety. Fairbanks is set right in the middle of prime Athabaskan hunting grounds and the area is rife with bears, moose, caribou, and lynx among smaller animals.

The area is rugged. Hard rock, (quartz, copper, zinc, silver and gold); is abundant and proves mining employment as does the forests and farming. The multiple mountain ranges surrounding Fairbanks and its valley are the highest outside of Everest in the Himalayas. It is an eight-hour trip traveling the flank of some of those mountains to get to the next largest city of 300,000, forty-five minutes by air over those mountains. We see more European than American visitors. The hills, valleys, and rivers protect us from most violent weather and provide a living to those intrepid enough to live here.

Monday afternoon proved to be hard, trying to fill those four hours without electricity on aging legs.

I did get some photos at one of the tribal halls and about the town. This archway along the river is made up of many sets of caribou and moose antlers.
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The ice floating in the Chena river is from the Nenana river that had just had its ice go out Monday morning giving some lucky ticket holders several thousands of dollars in winnings. This is what an Arctic spring looks like. The trees are budding out, the birds are back and harmonizing but we won't see full greenery and flowers until Memorial Day.
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Some ironwork from many around town.
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Really interesting place to live.  I like the flat land with all the mountains in the distance.  I've never liked being in the mountains (especially driving mountain roads), but I love viewing them in the distance.

Jean we are surrounded by three sets of foothills. The mountains are behind those hills. The valley is only flat where it is paved over. I guess I am the opposite. When I visited in Kansas and there was a violent storm; I felt afraid and there were no mountains about to keep out the worst of it! My friend living there didn't care for mountains as they scared her! 


We are too low in the valley to see the mountains.

This birch bark canoe dates back to the early nineteen hundreds.
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In March there are the Eskimo-Indian Games showcasing games that were used to develop and teaching children hunting skills. One of the events is to jump as high as possible to kick a ball. You can see a painting of one of the contestants in this mural.


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These hunting river spears are made of birch with mastodon ivory hooks. The from the left,waterproof boots are sealskin and the other ivory is also mastodon with the canoe and dogsled toys or minatures made from birch.
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This is a full look at the exhibit showing a walrus skull with ivory tusks and a  bone mask, from the early ninteen hundreds.
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This tribal hall exhibits some of the beadwork done in the past for clothing, special events, framing items and other uses.  There are beaded bone earrings in the cases on the right and birch bark baskets on the left. The one picture behind the baskets is done on moose skin and the hair trim on the larger beaded item is moose. The gloves are also moose hide.
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I would like to tell anyone if you are in good enough health to book a tour to Alaska to see much of what Patricia has shown.  Jim and I went in 2006 when I was 82 so I could handle it then.  We started at Anchorage, went by train to Talkeetna, then by bus for the rest of our trip.  It rained some every day but that did not slow us down.  The rain prevented us from seeing Denali, but the rain was usually not hard enough to keep us on the bus all of the time.  We were in Fairbanks, then to North Pole, then down to Valdez, a boat trip on Prince William Sound and back to Anchorage from where we flew to Vancouver BC and visited Jim's sister on Vancouver Island and we flew home from there.  We were there in August and I was amazed at the sizes of the flowers and vegetables.  We took a boat trip on the Nenana or Chena, saw Susan Butcher's dogs (she had died only a couple of weeks before our trip).  If I didn't have to walk, I'd do it again.  I highly recommend that anyone visit Alaska at least once - and we were in Patricia's Interior, not the Inside Passage.  While I would like to see the Inside Passage, I think we saw more of the "real" Alaska on our trip.  I loved it.

The bad part was that Patricia was working and all I got was her answering machine.  I would loved to have met you, Patricia.

Mary Ann

Fantastic photos Angel.  What an interesting place you live in.  I wish I could visit.

Fe is getting to show her personality now and looks so intelligent.

Mimi and her smile are  "huggable"

Thank you Bubble, I wish you could visit too!

MaryAnn,  Thank you, high praise indeed! I wish I hadn't been working as well and had been able to meet up with you.

Patricia thanks for showing us those wonderful pictures of Alaska, I have been so many places, but never made it there.  I did make Iceland which also was and interesting country. Most of my trips were to Europe.

Oh, Patricia, you know how I love your Alaska!!!  I wish there was someone that could take care of cats so I could spend a summer driving & just enjoying the scenery all the way to Fairbanks.  If they were normal cats & used to staying inside all the time, I would pack they up & take off.  So many "ifs" in my world, but must appreciate what I have & can do, right?  Love seeing your photos & doubt if I would see as much driving on my own.  Thanks!

Mary Ann, I never wanted to take a "tour" until I finally realized it is the best way, never have to look for a parking spot, never have to worry about a flat tire or finding gas..... years ago our neighbors took the tour in their 80s & absolutely loved it.

Remember back in the old SeniorNet days when in the Missouri discussion someone would come up with a cyber trip? I think it was Martex & another lady that would do a bunch of graphics with the old bus & we'd hit the cyber road.  I have some of the photos & videos on a CD or thumb drive "somewhere".... fun times.  We would take that bus around the world & pick up everyone & have a big party, everyone bringing their speciality.  Maybe we all need to take a trip to Alaska.  

Shirley, there are pros and cons about tours.  As one ages but is in fairly good physical health, tours are the way to travel.  When you pay for the tour, all of your expenses of the trip are taken care of - tips, most meals, luggage handling, fees to get into whatever is on the program.  A "con" is that you might want to linger in some of the places, but you are on a schedule and it isn't possible.  For me, the pros outweigh the cons.  From what I've heard, you would not want to drive to Alaska.  After you get there, it is OK,  but to get there is long and lonely.  I got there by flying in.

Mary Ann

[attachimg=1]This guy comes several times a day looking for me to toss him (her) a raisin.  We have several regulars including cardinals, woodpeckers, bluejays. The others won't stand still long enough to allow me to take a picture.

Great photo Rammel!  I did not know birds would enjoy a raisin.
What sharp nails he has.

Rick, you caught a good pose, love to sit outdoors now and hear the birds.  Would like to have a feeder, but  have had Goldens for over 30 years, so would not get the activity.   Jean and Larry posted photos in the past of their feeder.

Great, clear photo of the bird Rick! Nice of it to pose so well for you!

Great shot, Rick..... is that a mocking bird?   We have some around here but rarely get a good sight of them, just hear them going through all their calls.  They usually are people friendly birds but not ours.... could be the cats.  When we visited Cas' mother in eastern TN one time a catbird would be where ever we were outside, follow us around.  Nearly drove Cas nuts.  When we left early one morning to work our way back to KS, we stopped at the welcome center in Paducah, KY about 2:00 am, cars lined up for naps. We needed a couple hours sleep to get through St.Louis before rush hour traffic.... only a mocking bird sat on the limb near our vehicle & sang constantly.  I didn't know they stayed awake all night, but this one did.  After half an hour we drove on, singing didn't bother me.

Rammel.  for some reason all I could get of your photo was the tail end of the bird. Bet it was a beauty.  There are getting to be less birds all the time here n my area. Even the black one that use to just cover my front lawn for about a week and made a mess.  All gone now.
We are also loosing all our Ash trees. All over the area they are dead. City is removing about 70 aday that is not on private property but asking owner to have taken down.  So sad as this town was known all over the globe for being the city with the most trees. Appeared in many books. Around the University area specially. So sad.  I have one on my lot. Still has some leaves on but no shade now. Limbs fall of in every wind.